I come by a few times a day, since I have a few sites I visit out of habit. I've never been the type to make my own topics, so I don't post unless someone else makes a new thread, usually._________________

I don't visit as much as I used to, but I still find my way here more than a few times a week. I just missed the heyday - I remember this place overflowing with posts when I first joined - I couldn't keep up with them. Sadly, many many many forums have seen this kind of drop off with the advent of "social" media. I think forums are vastly superior to that new communication form. But they do require more thought and interactivity beyond "I ate at a new restaurant today" and other such updates that seem to pollute social media sites. It's sad. I keep hoping people will come to their senses and come back to forums, but I haven't seen it. Oh well._________________Ed Womack

I kind of get the impression that the Wild West days of webcomics are over. Back when I started my comic, there were still new "big" comics popping up occasionally, and old "successful" comics dying off all the time. Everything was very fluid. Nowadays it seems a lot more static. The top comics aren't budging, nobody new has made a really big splash in forever. All the new hotness seems to be in Youtube/Twitch/Blip videos. Speaking for myself, I still draw comics a fair bit, but since I know I won't get feedback if I post them online, I generally don't bother uploading them.

That's an interesting perspective and probably true to an extent - the genre does seem to have frozen and slowed... it seems almost impossible to become one of those "big" comics now, but many likely rushed to the field in hopes of being the next big thing. Then the market became supersupersaturated. And now that things have become pretty static, perhaps the excitement has pittered out. Maybe the "glory days" of webcomics has ended and everyone remaining just bobs in the wake? Or perhaps we're just in a temporary doldrums?

I wonder how many people were (and are) lured into webcomics with the expectation of enormous fortune or fame? Even Kate Beaton, a pretty popular webcomic artist said that no one has yet retired off of webcomics.

Opportunities for fortunes such as Charles Schulz' - who back in the 1980s was making a million a month - don't seem to exist on the web. The competition and market remain too diverse and diffuse for a few comics to dominate and corner the market the way Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin & Hobbes and others did in the highly controlled and focused market of newspapers.

If anything, the internet is closer to a pure "free market." Anyone can make a webcomic. Anyone can promote. The startup costs are almost nil (once one has a computer and an internet connection). The barriers to entry are almost nonexistent. The downside of this remains the glut of other webcomics all vying for attention and readership. The market has saturated and even the most popular webcomics will only capture a fraction of the potential market. If the internet were to close up and only allow 10 webcomics to exist, those lucky few would probably make vast sums of money because readers would have to focus on those. Newspapers provided a similar filter and thus allowed, by maintaining nearly impossible barriers to entry, for market concentration and fame and fortune beyond anything the open internet will likely ever see.

Do webcomics because you love to. Not for fame or fortune. Treasure or fame seekers will likely be disappointed._________________Ed Womack

Kate Beaton's point was more that no one is actually making enough money from webcomics to retire and never work again, not whether they would or wouldn't retire if given the chance. And given the way the market is now, no one probably can anyway. I have doubts that that will change unless webcomic syndicates with large money and promotional power behind them rise up and corner the market. And it may not even change then because the syndicates will of course take a chunk of the revenue.

Of course it's possible that an entrepreneurial webomic will come along and make a Peanuts-like impact, but it seems highly unlikely. There are just so many webcomics, and so many really great ones, out there, for any one or few to easily rise to the top. That's what I mean by claiming that the market is saturated - there are thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of webcomics out there. Just about every time I open my browser I run into a new webcomic that I've never seen before. They're everywhere. A wall of confusion faces anyone who delves into the genre and the average lover of newspaper comics would probably quickly find themselves overwhelmed when faced with the dizzying array of choices and subgenres on the internet.

But if we're also counting adult comics, the whole game may change... some of them may actually be raking it in... I don't know... just a guess... that stuff seems to sell in any format._________________Ed Womack

Last edited by ewomack on Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:25 am; edited 1 time in total

Well there is at least more of you on here than I first thought given the responses. So that's good at least! Haha.

I can't reply to all of you yet but this is good news, at least for me. You guys mentioned hay days huh? I wonder what it was like when this forum was happening? But hey, I'm new here too, so if I can have conversations like this then I'll stick around, fo sho!

Actually, I disagree that the webcomic market has saturated. I don't think it's really even opened up yet. How many random people in your neighborhood even know what webcomics are? Or if they have heard of webcomics, how many are likely to shrug them off as... as...

OK, I was about to throw on a stereotype but I really don't know how the rest of the world views webcomics. Gamer-stuff? Porn? Badly-drawn crap?

Back to the point. Webcomics haven't reached anywhere near the awareness level of newspaper comics, and nearly everyone can think of at least one newspaper comic they enjoy. I know to us in the biz it seems like webcomics have been around forever and people starting a webcomic now are too late to get in when the getting was good, but really, it's still a new thing. The whole internet is still shaking out and trying to find equilibrium.

The observation that no one has retired off of webcomics yet seems... misleading. As I said, webcomics are still new. Nobody who started their career in webcomics has reached retirement age yet! And if anyone has actually earned enough money to retire on (let's say, the Penny Arcade guys), they probably love what they do too much to think about retiring. Charles Schultz didn't retire with his millions, right?

It's interesting to think webcomics haven't really taken off but at the same time it feels like there's too many of them. I have been doing my comic Flipside U for just about a year now and have been advertising everywhere vying for any comic reader's attention 24/7. I must say it is hard work. Every where you look 100 other people are doing the same thing so it feels over saturated to me. But I agree that webcomics haven't really hit their stride. It's a weird feeling. Newspapers or magazines still hold some audience gaining powers, that's for sure!

I wonder if Banner Blindness is slowly being applied to webcomics as well...I hope not.

ewomack wrote:

Kate Beaton's point was more that no one is actually making enough money from webcomics to retire and never work again, not whether they would or wouldn't retire if given the chance. And given the way the market is now, no one probably can anyway. I have doubts that that will change unless webcomic syndicates with large money and promotional power behind them rise up and corner the market. And it may not even change then because the syndicates will of course take a chunk of the revenue.

Of course it's possible that an entrepreneurial webomic will come along and make a Peanuts-like impact, but it seems highly unlikely. There are just so many webcomics, and so many really great ones, out there, for any one or few to easily rise to the top. That's what I mean by claiming that the market is saturated - there are thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of webcomics out there. Just about every time I open my browser I run into a new webcomic that I've never seen before. They're everywhere. A wall of confusion faces anyone who delves into the genre and the average lover of newspaper comics would probably quickly find themselves overwhelmed when faced with the dizzying array of choices and subgenres on the internet.

But if we're also counting adult comics, the whole game may change... some of them may actually be raking it in... I don't know... just a guess... that stuff seems to sell in any format.

I do think adult comics are where you can make some money. If that's what you wanna do its totally worth it. The real question is, how does a webcomic artist get some actual attention in this over saturated sea of media? I mean as long as there's people on this earth they will continue to crave new entertainment. So wanting to start a webcomic is a fine thing to do in my books. Hmm...maybe the secret is buckling down with a dedicated and loyal team of skilled people? I'm thinking that's key...Then perhaps the forums will flood with 1000s of comic enthusiasts once more! Haha. Or maybe they'll just head over to Twitter or tumblr.

--------------------------

Last edited by FlapjackStudios on Mon Oct 28, 2013 4:49 am; edited 1 time in total